Cardinals' highly touted rookie Piscotty drawing rave reviews

St. Louis Cardinals' Stephen Piscotty hits a double in the second inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game against the New York Mets, Wednesday, March 12, 2014, in Port St. Lucie, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

St. Louis Cardinals' Stephen Piscotty walks to the dugout after hitting a three-run home run to score teammates Shane Robinson and Pete Kozma in the seventh inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Monday, March 10, 2014, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

JUPITER — This past offseason, shortly after he asserted the kind of prospect he is in the Arizona Fall League, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Stephen Piscotty went to a training facility near Stanford University to jump six times and find out the kind of athlete he is. The goal was to calculate how to become the athlete he wants to be.

Piscotty enrolled in a program at Sparta Performance Science, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based, trainer, that helped him improve by first identifying his category of athleticism. Piscotty stood on what Sparta calls its "Force Plate" and leaped six times.

Each jump was measured and quantified and "run through these algorithms that I don't know how they work," said Piscotty, who, it should be noted, majored in engineering at Stanford.

"Basically it will tell you if you're a ‘momentum' athlete, a ‘drive' athlete, or a ‘load' athlete," Piscotty explained. "Momentums are typically slower because they don't have the explosion to get going. Quick athletes have that high ‘drive,' quick explosions.

"I'm a momentum," he added. "I have to work on better drive."

Through the early weeks of spring training, Piscotty has shown both an ability to drive and, judging from recent playing time, generate momentum. The 23-year-old started in right field Thursday, the only player in the lineup not certain to have a regular role in the majors this season. Piscotty had a potential home run slowed by the wind and made a diving catch in right field, a new position to him.

He and Randal Grichuk have capitalized on additional playing time and vaulted ahead of vaunted prospect Oscar Taveras. The organization's top-rated prospect was optioned to minor-league camp on Thursday. Piscotty and Grichuk remain to do what Taveras could not: play. Taveras, considered one of the finest bats in all of the minors, was undone by ankle concerns and a hamstring injury that opened at-bats for Grichuk and Piscotty to seize.

"Without question. Without question," manager Mike Matheny said. Piscotty has "done a very good job the way he goes about it — squaring the ball up. We're excited to kind of watch him because we heard what he did in the fall league. We were anxious to see him at this level and see him with this group. He's made the most of it."

Piscotty, the 36th overall selection in the 2012 draft, turned a .295 average, .819 OPS, and 15 homers at two levels last season into an invite to the elite Arizona Fall League. Piscotty took a run at the league MVP with a .371 average and .936 OPS in 23 games.

He positioned himself as the Cardinals' top hitting prospect after Taveras and did so while showing agility in the outfield. Drafted as a third baseman, Piscotty has the arm for right field and is honing the instincts. He spent time this spring getting tutelage from Willie McGee on positioning and reading pitch selection to get better jumps on balls, and he had the increased "drive" speed to do so because of Sparta.

Piscotty considered the money he spent for three sessions a week at Sparta a good investment. It helped him, a momentum athlete who needed time to reach full speed, increase his explosiveness. He gained 10 pounds and strength, and he worked on his running form to increase speed.

"I feel faster," Piscotty said. But the "drive" improvement wasn't just in the outfield or on the bases, but also at the plate. "Momentum guys stay through the ball, hit the ball well, but you may not have that power where you can turn on an inside pitch and really drive it. If you can balance the two then that can be a potentially lethal combination."

Despite a strapping 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame, Piscotty has the swing of a high-average, doubles hitter, not a slugger. He said Thursday that the Cardinals have allowed him to maintain his approach as a "gap to gap" batter and not urged him to become "a guy able to hit 20 homers in a year but also strike out 120 times."

"That's not the player I want to be," Piscotty said.

Already this spring he has shown that short punch he wanted to add to his swing. He pulled a cutter for a three-run homer on Monday, and on Thursday, in the Cardinals' 11-0 win, he drove a pitch from Atlanta's Freddy Garcia to deep left field. Wind blowing straight into Roger Dean Stadium kept it from leaving the park.

The Cardinals are likely to side with playing time at Class AAA over a bench role in the majors for Piscotty, Grichuk, or slugger Xavier Scruggs, who had a bases-clearing double Thursday. All three have had solid springs. All three haven't taken a swing in Class AAA. All three offer something absent on the Cardinals' bench recently: righthanded power. With Jon Jay and Peter Bourjos as a left-right combo for center field, the Cardinals now have the option of carrying a righthanded bat for a late-game jolt. That hitter may not open the season in the majors, but the vacancy is there to claim.

"It's something we always talk about and try and see how it fits," Matheny said. "With these young players we also realize they need to play. We have some guys who could potentially come up and serve that role.... There is an opportunity for someone to come in and make a splash as the big at-bat off the bench."

Seizing playing time vacated by another prospect, Piscotty has gotten a jump on the asset he can be.

"It's intriguing, but we don't have to rush anything," general manager John Mozeliak said. "The good news is they can swing the bats. It's nice to know we can get it."